How to train this winter when weekends are off the bike but not restful (skiing)

Training
1

So ski season is among us and I’ll be spending most weekends on mountain. How would you organize your off season training?

My initial thought was to use plan builder on MV and just rearrange everything to fit into M-F. Frankly, things get a bit packed. 3 difficult workouts per week + 2 moderates + 2 ski days seems like a tough act. I then tried the same thing with LV, and it’s essentially the same: 3 difficult days.

So it got me thinking, is 3 difficult days too much if I’m planning on skiing on the weekends? Should I just drop to 2 hard days and fill in the others with easier programming?

What have other done and how would you do it again?

2

Take Monday off. Friday easy/short. Z2 in the middle of the week. You’re in the off season. Don’t focus on gains right now.

3

I’m thinking of it less as gains vs keeping/developing a solid base for spring training.

When I say difficult workouts, I’m referring to the TR labels. They are mostly Sweet spot intervals so it’s not lots of VO2 work or anything.

But perhaps you are right. Putting the type A aside for a bit is another strategy to consider.

4

Consistency is step one to making gains. You’ve already said you’re doing hard work not on the bike 2 days a week. Doing that is fine and good. But trying to force ‘gains’ while doing that is a fast track to injury or burnout. Enjoy your winter. Build or maintain that low end fitness. Be fresh to get after it when the snow starts to melt.

5

If you have a TrainerRoad account, check out the time crunched 30 or 40 minute plans or even the maintenance one. They help maintain some fitness with the least amount of time. That’s what I would do personally. Then if some day I was tired and or sore, just not feeling well overall. I’d do a easy z2 ride or take a day off.
For me it would be perfect for winter time, where I can enjoy snowboarding and keep some bike fitness.

2 Likes
6

I’m an avid ski tourer, usually will ski 1-2 days a week while completing the LV plan. I also usually do a week long hut trip in midwinter, and a week+ traverse in spring. I actually don’t find combining skiing with TR all that hard, besides those weeklong trips. I ski on weekends and do TR on MWF, and take Tuesday and Thursday completely off.

The only caveat is that I actually find ski touring much easier on the body than resort skiing. Ski touring is more work but generally way less impact. A day of hard resort skiing leaves me feeling quite a bit more worn out, but YMMV.